Wednesday, August 21, 2013

ALT-AZ mount DIY

Found these $20 digital levels at Aldi. They have 0.1 degree resolution, so made two of these into an manual AltAz mount. Still a little bit wobbly but can carry the DMK51 and 26mm lens. I will try to image the current Nova if the clouds go way. Using a similar technique to processing STEREO/SECCHI images I hope to be able to see down to at least mag 8, hopefully mag 10. This will let me see Neptune and some of the brighter asteroids. The drift technique will allow the motion of the planet or asteroid to be detected. I propose to look at the SOHO kreutz comet path that occasionally passes overhead, perchance to see an early comet.

update 20130828 - Some efforts with this mount. Positioned the camera and let the FOV drift taking 1 second images Making a medium of 20 images. FOV is 15x10 degrees, down to appox mag 8,.